The end draws near...


A quick note on the co-worker's wedding I went to recently. Unlike the other wedding I went too, Dentia choose to conduct her wedding primarily in English. There was an white guy who stood up front conducting the service, and then a Korean woman stood off to the side translating after he spoke. The words spoken were similar to an American service and it lasted about as long. The rest of the wedding was fairly similar to the other one I had been to, but I did find it interesting that English was the primary language used for the ceremony.


This past Saturday, Meg and I took a trip out to the Korea War Museum. The museum chronicles the history of all the wars that Korea has been involved in, but of course, a big focus of the museum is the Korean War. Outside of the museum building is an impressive array of military equipment used in the Korean war, ranging from planes, to missiles, to trucks. There were also several monuments, my favorite being one of two brothers, one fighting for North Korea and one fighting for South Korea, meeting on the battlefield. The museum itself was very well laid out, it was easy to follow, had interactive displays and there were also lots of artifacts to look at. I especially enjoyed the museum seeing as I knew very little about the Korean War. Given that it was considered "recent" history when Meg and I were in AP US history, we ran out of time to study it and never really got past "the North and the South fought." Thus, it was nice to get a better grasp on the whole situation and what happened.


So it is that time in Korea...back to school time! No seriously...it is. The school year (at the public schools and the hagwons) starts in March so a bunch of the stores here have back to school signs in the windows and are advertising backpacks. Both our schools have also raised tuition for next school year, our schools now cost between 1.3 and 1.5 million A MONTH for kindergarten alone. That means parents are spending roughly 13-15 THOUSAND dollars per year to send their 3, 4, and 5 year olds to English school. Yeesh. Along the same lines, I have been informed of part of my teaching schedule for next year. I will be getting a new kindergarten class in March, unfortunately losing my babies to a new teacher. I will be teaching 6-1 students ("6" year olds in their first year of learning English). The good news is I only have to move one classroom over, which is convenient. The bad news is Jenny (my supervisor) is following the Nemos, so I am getting a brand new supervisor (who CIS just hired). So as of February 25, I will no longer be the Nemo class teacher, I will be the Bambi class teacher. No news yet on my afternoon schedule, I was told that we will hear about that next week.

I officially move into my own place in 8 days. Meg flies out in 18 days. In 11 days we will both have been living in Korea for 365 days. And in 2 days we will be in Taipei, enjoying one last long weekend in Asia, as well as setting foot on our 7th country of the year!

WE WENT TO NORTH KOREA!!!



...no seriously...we did.





So one of the things on my "to-do-before-I-leave-Korea" list was to visit Panmunjom. We went into the DMZ (demilitarized zone which is 4km wide, 2km on the northern side of the border and 2km on the southern side. It runs the entire length of the countries- more or less along the 38th parallel). A special area within the DMZ is called the JSA (Joint Security Area). The JSA is made up of 95% South Korean soldiers and 5% American soldiers. It is the ONLY place along the 248km of the DMZ where the South Korean and North Korean soldiers stand face to face....its pretty intense stuff!





After WWII, the US and the Soviet Union divided the Korean peninsula at the 38th parallel, the US instating democracy in the south, and the Soviet Union instating communism in the north. During the next five years tensions grew between the north and south, and in an attempt at controlling the entire peninsula, the north attacked the south on June 25th, 1950. The war went on for 3 intense years. At the beginning, the north captured all of the south with the exception of the Busan area within 1 month. The south then gained support from 16 countries and managed to push the north up much past the original 38th parallel. In the end, both sides reached a stale-mate and the Korean Armistice Agreement was made between the US, UN (South side) and North Korea and China (North side) on July 27th, 1953. This armistice put a "pause" on the war (the countries are still technically in a state of war) and also established the border between the two countries.




The JSA is where this armistice was signed, and at this site, South Korean officers and leaders meet alongside North Korean officers and leaders. The buildings are literally split down the middle (like you used to do with your brothers and sisters "my half of the couch" kinda thing). We were able to visit these buildings and go into the North Korean side. So we were literally in North Korea for about 10 minutes! We were able to take photos in only two designated areas, otherwise photos were strictly forbidden. We were also warned not to go off designated paths because the area was still ridden with land mines (we didn't have any free time, so that wasn't really an issue). We were told not to point, make gestures, wave or anything toward North Korea, because they were watching us with binoculars as well as cameras. If we pointed or waved, they would take a picture and use it in their propaganda (look how much these Westerners love us!).




It was a bit eerie knowing we were being watched, and all the precautions made the experience quite intense. The soldiers were all armed and wearing helmets and bullet proof gear, super alert in case they had to protect us. We signed a waver stating that they are not responsible for injury or death, etc. When taking photos inside the room, we couldn't stand too close to the soldier because if something happened, it would be in a split-second and the soldier would need room to react.



The soldiers near the split negotiation buildings were standing next to the wall, with half their body exposed and half hidden behind the building. This was so they are able to watch but also have cover quickly if they need to dodge a bullet. On the way to the JSA we saw large concrete blocks near the roads. Our guide explained that they were anti-tank blockades. If North Korean tanks were to invade the south, "buttons are pressed" and the concrete blockades fall down onto the road, delaying an attack.



I regretted wearing a bright red coat a little bit...sort of like driving a red corvette in a speed trap, haha but overall I never felt really unsafe. Just a little unnerved! It was a great thing to finally learn more about the Korean war and to visit Panmunjom and the JSA was an intense experience but completely worth it. It is the only place like it in the world.








Pictures of Panmunjom HERE

We are both happy to have checked another thing off our lists and coming up in a few weeks we'll be adding another country to our "visited" list - Taiwan! Its really crazy to think I have only 5 weeks left out of my entire year!

Heading back to reality


On Saturday we woke up, prepared to spend our morning on the beach before jumping on the bus at 1:30 to start the ride back to Phenom Penh. We decided to take it very easy (partly because my foot hurt to walk on), so we went out to catch some rays. Cambodian ladies with baskets of nail polish wander the beach giving manicures and pedicures for a bank breaking $6, so we decided to go for it. We were hoping to enjoy these in peace, but were not so lucky. The lady painting Meg's nails got in a pretty angry sounding argument with another person giving manicures who apparently thought Meg was her client because she had told Meg the day before that if she wanted a manicure she should come to her. After that another lady wandered up, pestering us if we wanted our legs shaved - which she was doing with baby powder and a string.



After grabbing lunch we loaded our luggage into a tuk-tuk and made our way to the bus station. Our flight didn't leave Phenom Penh until 8:30 pm, so we figured a 1:30 bus would be perfect, since the ride takes about 4 to 5 hours. However, our bus ended up not leaving until 2:45. As someone who is always a little freaked out about missing flights (especially given our Chiang Mai episode) I spent a lot of the bus ride telling myself to calm down and not worry until I had to. Thankfully we made in with plenty of time. We checked in for the first leg of our flight (we were going on one airline to Bangkok and then a different airline from Bangkok to Seoul) and were told we could check in for the other leg once we arrived in Bangkok. We found a DQ (wooo, blizzards!) and free internet to keep ourselves occupied for awhile and were getting ready to get on the plane when the announcement came on informing us that our flight was delayed. This was no big deal, more of an annoyance, since our layover in Bangkok was two hours and the flight was only delayed 30 minutes.



We arrived in Bangkok and were making our way off the plane - slowly given my slight limp- when we saw a flight attendant holding a sign with our names on it. Confused, we went up to her and asked what was going on. She informed us that "due to the delay you need to run to catch your next flight." My eyes immediately went to my foot while Meg looked at her and said "run?" Both of us were very confused seeing as our flight was not supposed to leave for over another hour, but we took off (well, Meg took off, I was limping behind as fast as I could). Of course, we had to go practically to the other end of the airport to check in for our next flight. I finally get to the desk where Meg already is, we hand over our passports and the lady gives us our tickets and tells us, "the flight is delayed." Meg and I stared at each other incredulously and started making our way to the gate. And no, we were never told why we had to run. At the Bangkok airport we finally changed out of our shorts and tank tops into jeans and long sleeves and boarded our overnight flight for Seoul. We arrived in Seoul at about 7 am on Sunday, to temperatures 75-80 degrees colder than what we had just been in. Which was terrible.



Upon our arrival in Korea I did go see the doctor about my foot. The doctor sent me to the dermatologist, who I visited three days in a row on my lunch break. He poked around the spikes with a needle and pulled out pieces of the spikes with tweezers. On the third day he gave me a prescription for a cream to help avoid infection and told me I only need to come back if it looked infected or hurt. So far, no problems...and most of the marks are gone. The cost of the three visits plus prescription? Under 30,000 won (or less than $25).



Overall the trip was amazing - it is hard to even put it into words. Cambodia is completely different from any country I have ever been too - the people were warm and inviting, the culture intriguing, and the landscape was beautiful! It was also interesting to spend time in a country I knew so little about and learn about their recent history. I really enjoyed Vietnam as well, but feel like I didn't have enough time in the country. I would love to explore other areas of Vietnam some day and would go back to Cambodia given the opportunity as well! I am so glad that Meg and I chose these two countries as our vacation destinations and will not be forgetting the sights and experiences of Cambodia and Vietnam anytime soon!



And now back to Korea...and the real world.



On Tuesday Meg and I received some grim news - we were being evicted. Well, not really, but it felt like it since we were informed that we had to be completely moved out of our apartment by February 19. Interesting since both of our current contracts go until February 26. Anyways, Froebel told Meg that they would put her up in a hotel for the remaining week of her contract. However, I was on my own. I had told CIS I didn't need my new apartment until the 25, so May (the person in charge of finding apartments) wasn't going to start searching until early February. Frantic, I went to her after school on Tuesday, basically begging her to find me an apartment by the 18 (mostly because my new contract doesn't include any furniture since I said I was able to move what I already have. And now I need to get all the furniture I want out by the 19). Thankfully, May said she would do her best and stared talking to the realtor. Today I was able to go visit 4 apartments and made a choice on which I wanted. The apartments ranged in size and price (for two I would have to pay an extra 100,000 won a month, one an extra 50,000 and one nothing extra), but all are located about 15 minutes walking distance from school. I choose the one that I wouldn't have to pay any extra for - which is also the biggest of the four. Of course, it feels small - especially compared to what I am used to and the bathroom is TINY. But I will have a stove (nice change from a hot plate) and a bigger fridge. The more expensive ones were nicer (more storage, didn't look as used, nicer views), but a lot smaller and I felt that it wasn't worth the extra money in the long run. Pictures and more details to follow when I actually move in!



As Meg counts down her final 5 weeks in Korea, we have been frantically trying to pencil in all the last minute things we want to do. This Saturday we will be making our way back up to the DMZ in order to tour Panmunjom, and I will be attending a Korean co-worker's wedding on Sunday. We also leave for Taiwan in three weeks for our final trip in Asia together! Oh! It has also officially been 11 months since we have stepped foot on a continent other than Asia. Hard to believe that this time a year ago we were applying for visas and starting to make our lists of how much of things we would need to last us a year!

If you ever need to know what do to if you step on a sea urchin...read on

New Years Eve (Thurs):

So after Vietnam it was back to Cambodia for phase 2: beaches. Thurs morning we awoke ridiculously early to catch our 11-hour bus ride from Siem Reap to Sihanoukville. Our bus arrived about an hour late, which, when you could be getting precious sleep, is slightly obnoxious. Anyway, we boarded the bus unenthusiastically as we thought it would be our home for the better part of the day. Wrong. About 10 mins down the road, we see tons of smoke out the window. The bus then pulled over to the side of the dirt road and even though nobody told us what was going on, we knew we were in fact, stranded.

The bus unloaded and there we were, Cambodians and a few foreigners with all our stuff on the side of the road. Eventually a new bus came and we were off! After a couple hours we stopped at a rest stop. It was so crazy - as we were getting out of the bus about a half dozen Cambodian girls swarmed all of us asking us to buy their pineapple. Usually I can deal with pretty much anything while traveling but being on a bus allllll day, being bombarded was not on the top of my "things-I'd-enjoy-most-right-now" list. We finally broke through them and looked around a bit, but as we were waiting for the others in the group to get back on the bus we were approached by another girl selling pineapple, only she had a marketing trick. She offered "pineapple or spider?" and Rach and I making sure we heard her right both looked at each other, then looked at her and asked..."spi-der?" and made creeping motions w/out hands. She said yes and I got excited b/c I thought we'd finally found the deep fried spiders we'd been looking for. So I asked her "to eat?" and she said "no - LIVE!" and pulled out this GIGANTIC tarantula that just crawled all over her hand. Awweeessoommmeee. I SHOULD have gotten a picture of it, and many of you know I like to capture moments such as this, and its a grade-A fail on my part, but just being exhausted and not wanting her to pester me about buying her pineapple I didnt.

The entire rest of the trip I kept thinking about how I could have bought a sweet, super BA spider for less than a dollar and I DIDN'T. I guess now I know so if I ever go back to Cambodia, I won't pass up such a golden opportunity ever again!

After what seemed like (and what WAS) forever, we arrived at our "bungalow." It was a nice place, a little small but it had hot pink mosquito netting over the bed so I was sold. Also, instead of regular doorlock our bungalow had a huge padlock. We didn't want to waste any time and we were starving so we went to have dinner beachside at the restaurant hooked up to our bungalow. It was awesome - the ocean a few feet away, warm salty air. First New Years Eve I've ever spent in a warm climate. We both ordered the traditional dish of Cambodia for dinner - Rach got chicken "amok" and

I got fish "amok." Amok means that the chicken or fish is covered in kroeung and coconut milk, wrapped in banana leaves and steamed. It looked pretty terrible, but it was actually really really good! We were also excited because the beach had awesome drink specials - 2 for 1 cocktails when the cocktails cost $2 each. We had a pleasent dinner, but then it was time to get our new years party on!

Some people were going around the beach selling fireworks, so I bought us a couple, you know, in the spirit and all. All along the coastline there were people firing off these giant bottle rockets making the atmosphere more reminicent of the fourth of July than new years eve. We made our way along the beach and ended up making some Cambodian friends and had fun dancing around and being silly with them and a few other foreigners, including a 12-year old boy who later told us "rock on for me!" when he had to leave to go to bed, haha. Midnight however was pretty uneventful because there wasn't actually a "countdown" persay. There was just a lot of fireworks and people cheering and stuff. We eventually went to do some Cambodian karaoke, went dancing for a bit at a Cambodian club and eventually landed ourselves in bed after an extremely long day!

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New Years Day (Friday):

This might be my most favorite story from the trip. Friday morning we woke up at about 7:30am to go "snorkeling" (I use the term loosely). We boarded a medium-sized boat with about 15 teenage Cambodian guys (we thought we'd be with other foreigners or at least NOT with a group of high schoolers but you know, go with the flow...) and set off to sea. We arrived at the first island and the guide nor any of the guys spoke English really so we just followed suit of putting on a lifejacket, snorkel stuff and jumping in. The water was super salty, but really warm and I realized how much I miss swimming! After taking a couple great snapshots w/my underwater camera case, I was floating around when all the sudden Rach says "hey, can you look at my foot? I think I scraped it on something." So I look at the bottom of her foot and there are several pretty large BLACK splinters in it and it was bleeding a little bit. Yikes. Trying to keep the terror off my face, I told her she probably stepped on a sea urchin (one of the creatures we were observing while "snorkeling." The bodies of these urchins were about the size of 2 softballs, with spikes jutting out about 2 times its diameter...in other words, they were kinda scary.

We start swimming back to the boat but all I was thinking was that if her foot was bleeding, we'd probably be eaten by sharks before we got there. Once out of the water we showed the guide her foot. He looked at it, kinda nodded his head a little bit, then went to the back of the boat to get something. He came back with a PVC pipe and then proceeded to beat the bottom of her foot with it. This guy either knew exactly what he was doing...or was a complete lunatic. Rach's foot really began to hurt and since nobody spoke English we didn't know if these things were poisonous, or if she had to seek medical attention or what. After about 15 mins, we came up to another boat and they motioned for us to get off our boat and join the other one. We were relieved because we were under the impression this boat was heading back to the mainland, and therefore we wouldn't have to stay all day on our boat until it was scheduled to get back around 3pm (it was now about 9am). This second boat, however, was NOT heading back to the mainland, and we figured out we were pretty much just dumped on another boat...perhaps so they didn't have to deal with it anymore! Although, there may have been a legit reason, we'll never know. But at the moment, we were quite offended!

So the guide on this second boat didn't speak much English either, but there were some other foreigners from Europe who could speak English to us. The problem was that they were just as stumped as we were about what was going on. The guide on this boat ALSO beat Rach's foot with a PVC pipe, but added some dramatic flair when he poured GASOLINE all over it. Really?! Really. By this point we just wanted to go back home because we couldn't really snorkel anymore and we were both pretty miserable. We finally landed on an island where we were scheduled to have lunch, and I went to search for a way home.

Sadly, all the boats weren't scheduled to leave until later in the afternoon, and unless we wanted to pay $40 for a private ride, we were stuck. At this news, we decided to just make the best of the day, I mean, what else can you really do? We ended up doing some swimming (carefully) on the beach and had a picnic lunch with the Cambodians. They fried up some fish they had just caught on our boat that morning and had fresh watermelon!

We got back on the boat and went to another island. As we boarded, some guy had "caught" a much smaller version of the sea urchin that battled with and won Rach's foot. When she saw it she was like "oh HECK no!" and walked out of the way to get on the boat, while myself and the others laughed in good fun. Later, I tried my hand at "fishing." They literally had fish line wrapped around a water bottle (as the reel) with a rusty nail as the sinker, and a tiny hook with small chunks of octopus as bait. I have never fished in the ocean, and although its not the way I imagined it, I was really excited to give it a try! I ended up hooking a fish...not in its mouth but by its belly haha. It was a pretty fish, but kinda small so I threw it back. I grew up fishing and you never keep the small ones! A Cambodian lady on the boat made a small noise of protest as I threw the fish back w/out even thinking, and I realized they keep all the fish they catch and eat them....whoops! We just kinda laughed it off, but secretly I was happy my fish got a second chance :)

We finally started to head back. Rach's foot was feeling a bit better, and the evening air felt good on our faces as we jetted home. The Cambodians started cutting up fruit - green mango, and offered us some. They were dipping it in what looked like sugar, but because of my experience in Vietnam, I wasn't so liberal when I dipped my fruit this time. Good thing because it was the same pepper salt as before! It was fun to share fruit with everyone on the boat, though. I felt like we really bonded with everyone throughout the day, even though most of us didn't speak the same language.

When we got back we talked to the front desk about Rach's foot predicament. He explained to us that the spikes of a sea urchin are essentially just calcium, and that if you hit them they will break down so your body can absorb/reject them. Ahhhh THATS why they were beating on it! It was all starting to come together. Then he told us that rubbing something acidic in nature on them will dissolve them faster, such as a lime. Ohhhhh THATS why they poured gasoline on it! So for about an hour, we each took turns beating her foot with a ketchup bottle and rubbing limes on it, haha. We had another beachside dinner, relaxed with a fruit shake, and went to sleep pretty early after a pretty eventful start to 2010.

Exploring the sights of Ho Chi Minh City

Before I get back into Vietnam, I wanted to make an official announcement. At 4:30 pm today, I signed on the line of my new contract, ensuring that I will be staying in South Korea until March 2011. I will be moving to an apartment within walking distance of CIS at the end of February but have yet to hear what classes I will be teaching come March. More details to follow!

And now back to the good stuff!

Our flight out of Vietnam was at about 5:30 pm, so we decided Wednesday would be best spent in Ho Chi Minh City. We signed up for a private city tour as we figured this would be the easiest way to ensure we saw all the sights without having to worry about getting around (since there is no subway system). We met our tour guide and driver around 8:30 am and headed to our first destination - the Reunification Palace. The palace used to be named Independence Palace, but was renamed at the end of the Vietnam War. Currently it is just a museum, however, it used to be the official residence and working place of the South Vietnam Presidents. The Vietnam War ended at this palace when the North Vietnam Army drove a tank through the main gates, forcing the South to surrender. Meg and I quickly discovered that we were visiting the palace on field trip day. Hoards of Vietnamese school children were touring the palace - and they loved us. I didn't think it was possible to feel more like a celebrity than I did when I first arrived in Korea...but it is. Every single child was waving and saying hello to us - most of them more than once! We were both slightly surprised how excited the children were to see us since we had heard that some people in Vietnam are still fairly anti-American. However, Meg and I never felt any animosity towards us at all while in Vietnam. For the most past people simply ignored us and went about their business.

From here we head over to the War Remnants Museum. The building contains several exhibits related to the war - photographs from during the war, pictures drawn by kids about the war, war equipment, graphic photographs and stories about the effect of Agent Orange, and even three jars with preserved fetuses due to exposure to dioxin. This was the one place in Vietnam where Meg and I felt slightly uncomfortable being American. The museum is run by the Vietnam government and everything is written from a very anti-American perspective. The museum actually used to be called 'The House for Displaying War Crimes of American Imperialism and the Puppet Government' (referring to South Vietnam). Later the museum was renamed the 'Museum of American War Crimes' and it wasn't until quite recently, when relations with the US got better, that the current name was adopted.We didn't feel like people were opposed to us being there, it was more strange and disconcerting to read about America in that light.


We finished up our tour by seeing some other sights around the city such as Notre Dame Cathedral, post office, opera house, and city hall. We ended the tour by heading over to the Jade Emperor Pagoda which was built by the Cantonese community around the turn of the 20th century. The pagoda was full of beautiful carvings and beautifully decorated alters and very different from any of the temples I have visited in Asia. After finishing our tour we had enough time to do some last minute shopping to get rid of the last of our dong before we headed out to the airport.

Upon our arrival back in Cambodia we were instantly reminded of the difference between the Cambodian people and Korean people. Cambodians are much more laid back and easy-going. The people at the visa processing station were joking with us about needing 2 copies of our pictures so they could keep one for themselves, the guy running the taxi service was bantering with us about giving us a discount for singing over the radio, and when we went through customs we literally just dropped our form on a pile...there was no one there to check us. Throughout the whole trip we remained really impressed with the level of English Cambodians spoke. Many of them spoke better than the Koreans we run into on a daily basis, even though there is not nearly the same emphasis on learning English in Cambodia as there is in Korea. We discovered that it was very easy to have conversations with Cambodians and even joke with them, something that doesn't happen very often in Korea because Koreans have difficulty picking up on English sarcasm and humor.

We finished up our night by heading into downtown Siem Reap for crocodile burgers (which were delicious) and beer. Then it was back to the hostel to repack and attempt to catch some 'ZZZ's before getting up super early on Thursday to catch the bus to Sihanoukville where we would be for New Years Eve as well as the rest of our vacation!

Vietnam!

When we got to Vietnam, one of our travel nightmares was realized. Our hotel didn't have our booking information. Apparently, the hotels access to hostel bookers (a popular online site which we used to book the hotel) wasn't available. After a bit of confusion, the lady told us we could go to another hotel, "her" hotel...which was confused us even more because we figured we WERE at her hotel...but anyways they brought us over there and told us that we would pay the original hotel, and book our tours through there, but we would stay and eat breakfast in this other hotel down the street. They asked us to keep our passports at the front desk during our two days but being already on red-alert because of the confusion, we refused. It all sounds a lot sketchier than it actually was, I'm sure, but nonetheless it was an entertaining way to begin our time in Vietnam.

We decided in order to make the best of our limited time, we would book a couple tours to enable us to see everything we wanted. Tuesday was our first full day and so we went on a Mekong Delta tour. Its a lush area with tall palms and canals and was also a site for battles between Viet Cong and the U.S during the Vietnam war. We took a bus to the delta area and then took two boats to get to the island - one larger boat and then a smaller one. Our first stop was to drink some local honey tea made from fresh honey straight from vietnamese bees. The locals of the island made it for us and it was quite sweet but very good! After a couple minutes the bees started flying around us...but I kept my best to stay calm! For those of you who aren't aware, I am pretty scared of bees. Its gotten better the past couple years but I have been known to scream and sacrifice ice cream cones to the gravel gods if a bee came near them. Anyway, a bee flew near my cup and then, perfect, landed on it. The people sitting across from us thought it was hilarious, I was amused but shifting uncomfortably in my chair deciding whether or not to take a picture, which, in the end I did. The next time I looked at the cup the bee had fallen into my tea! Although the usual thought that would enter my head would be "die, sucker! die!" I actually felt bad for it and rescued it with my spoon.

Next it was time for others in our group to face a fear. As I was taking a closeup picture of the bee I just saved from bee-heaven, Rach elbowed me and said "Meg! Behind you!" I looked behind me and our tour guide had brought out a snake...a really REALLY big snake! In my head I was like a kindergartner "me! ooo pick me!" and so when the guide offered it to me I was really excited. Rach and I both had some time with the serpent and after that we took another small boat to a different island where we sampled fresh coconut candy. Well, its more like coconut caramels but it was ridiculously delicious.

We then took a short bike tour around the area. It was fun to be on bikes again (a one-speed at that) and it really felt like being a local biking around on the trails.

We also got to eat some fresh fruit prepared by some of the island people. They told us that the little bowl in the middle was to dip the pineapple in. It appeared to be the consistency of sugar, so I dove my piece of pineapple down into it and covered the bottom half, perfectly confident it would taste sweet and delicious. I bite into my pineapple and start chewing...noticing that hmm it doesn't really taste that sweet. A half second later I was coughing and grabbing for my tea. Not only was it SALT, it was red pepper super spicy salt. Why in the WORLD would you put that on your fruit?! It took me a few more experiences with it to understand that you're really not supposed to use THAT much, and when used in moderation, it actually really kinda works. Who knew.

While sitting down on a mini horse-drawn-carriage between stops on the island, a few of the older women put their arms up against Rach's and my legs. At first we were confused, but we soon realized they were comparing skin color. They were amazed at how white we were. And ladies and gentleman, we WERE white. I mean, whiter than rice...heck even I was amazed at how white we were! But it was a really interesting experience kind of chatting with these women about how they envied our skin and thinking how we envied them for their tanner skin.

After our day-long adventure we headed back to Ho Chi Minh city proper and did some great shopping! Rach and I both found Northface ski jackets for $35 which we were both really excited about. They have some really cool stuff in Vietnam and I brought home a few great souvenirs.

The motorbike traffic in Ho Chi Minh was INSANE! There were no walk signs so you had to cross in the midst of all the chaos. For a city with 10 million people, over 4 million have motorbikes. I think my memories of the city will always have the sound and smell of motorbikes in them.
Stay tuned for our 2nd day in Vietnam!

Ruins, ruins, and even more ruins


Before I jump back into our winter vacation, I want to mention the weather in Seoul. On Monday, Seoul got the heaviest snow fall it has seen in 70 years! In all, 11 inches were dumped on a city that is definitely ill-equipped to handle any more than a light dusting. Both mine and Meg's commute took over double the amount of time as usual. Meg's on the bus because the roads were awful and no one knows how to drive in snow; and mine on the subway because all the people who didn't want to drive crammed onto the subway. I have never been elbowed in the gut and shoved from all sides so much in my life! An interesting thing to note is what is used to remove the snow in Korea. Throughout the entire day I only saw one or two real snow shovels and zero snowplows. However, I did see people sweeping the snow, using brooms as shovels, using pieces of cardboard to push snow into open manholes, and using signs (like those politicians use during campaign season) attached to pieces of wood as shovels. Furthermore, there was a massive amount of "snowbrellas" in use, as well as our creative methods to keep the snow off your head such as putting a garbage bag over it. These pictures were from my window, first thing when I woke up...it got much worse as the day went on!

Now back to Cambodia, where it was high 80s and gorgeous!

Sunday:

Sunday was by far the earliest day on trip. We had reserved all day for Angkor Wat since this was our only full day in Siem Reap. When we talked to the guy at our hostel about doing an Angkor Wat tour, he told us that we could hire a tuk-tuk and driver for the day for a grand total of $15. He then told us our driver would be available as early as 5 am if we would like to see the sunrise over Angkor Wat. Despite the fact that this would mean getting up at 4:30 am, we both knew that there was no question that we had to witness this. So there we were, sitting in front of Angkor Wat at 5:30 am, waiting for the sun.

Angkor Wat actually just refers to a temple complex in the area, although many people just refer to all the ruins in this area as Angkor Wat. It is actually the entire region of Angkor, located just outside of Siem Reap that is full of ruins from the 9th to 13th century. The area served as the seat of the Khmer empire until the Thai invaders came in 1431. There are over 1,000 ruins of temples in this area, ranging from piles of bricks to the magnificent Angkor Wat. Meg and I had no idea of the magnitude of the area, and thankfully our driver took us to the main ones, so we didn't have to worry about missing anything!



Angkor Wat was built for the Suryavarman II, the king, in the early 12th century. It is the best preserved temple in Angkor, and has become a national symbol of Cambodia, even gracing their flag. The Wat is a prime example of Khmer architecture and is constructed mainly of sandstone blocks with intricate designs. Meg and I spent about 4 hours wandering around Angkor Wat alone, taking in the various buildings and admiring the detailed carvings on the walls. When we finished at about 9:30 am, we (mistakenly) thought we were done. We were a little puzzled because we had heard it was a least a one day experience, but figured we just move faster than most people. Ha...little did we know. Anyway, we went to find our driver (harder than it sounds considering there was a sea of tuk-tuks and we had met our driver at 5 am when it was too dark to see his face or even what color his tuk-tuk was). We had read about a hot air balloon that will take you up to get an aerial view of the complex, so we decided to check this out. The balloon actually remains attached to the ground and you stand in a huge circular cage. The balloon is rotated while in the air for a 360 degree view. Unfortunately, it was pretty hazy so it was hard to get a good view, but it was still fun!







After this, our driver brought us to the next area - Angkor Thom. Angkor Thom was the last capital city in the Khmer empire, established in the late 12th century by king Jayavarman VII. It covers about 3 square miles and several other ruins are located in this area, including the Bayon. Built around the same time as Angkor Wat, the most distinct feature of the Bayon are the massive stone faces on many of the towers - 216 in total. The Bayon was also the only Angkorian temple to be built primarily as a Buddhist shrine. After spending a couple of hours wandering around here, we were off again.

From here, the ruins started to blur together. Without a map or an English speaking guide, Meg and I were getting overwhelmed by all ruins and the lack of context to go with them. We continued to go to various sites and explore, but seeing as we started so early, we were quickly losing our stamina. For lots (and I do mean lots) of more pictures of all the ruins, check out our webshots!



We were also starting to get quite feed-up with the people selling things. At all the sites, we were immediately bombarded by people, 95% of the time young children, selling cold drinks, postcards, guide books, and other various items. They were very persistent, often grabbing your arm or following you around for awhile. At one spot we made the mistake of stopping and looking at what one child had in his basket. Soon there were about 5 children all crowded around us, shoving things in our face and saying "You buy? 1 dollar. You buy now, ok?" Probably the best one though was when Meg got frustrated with a young woman who kept trying to sell her various things. Since Meg kept saying no to everything she offered, the lady finally asked her "what you want?" to which Meg replied "nothing." Without missing a beat, the lady replied, "Ok, nothing, 2 dollar."



We made it back to Siem Reap about 3 pm, where we grabbed a quick lunch at the hostel and headed back to Psa Chaa. Since we had more time today, we went deeper into the market where we quickly discovered the jewelry section. Meg and I spent a fair amount of time at one lady's counter in particular, trying on all the rings and various pendants. We both came away with some really pretty pieces as well! From here, we decided to try Cambodian BBQ for dinner. We got a choice of 5 meats (we went with snake, ostrich, goat, kangaroo and crocodile) which cooked on a small grill around some soup. All the meat was delicious and the soup wasn't half-bad either!



Monday:



On Monday we allowed ourselves the luxury of sleeping in until about 9:30. We had no set plans until heading to the airport around 3 in the afternoon to catch our flight to Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City), Vietnam. We went and had a leisurely lunch at a restaurant nearby our hostel. Meg had sour soup Khmer style and I tried chicken with cashews (which was actually much different than other versions. More vegetables and the sauce was orange). From here we headed back towards Psa Chaa to grab some last minute souvenirs. On the way, we stopped at a Wat that we randomly passed and enjoyed some of the beautiful architecture. Since we still had about 2 hours to kill, we treated ourselves to $5 hour long foot massages and also sipped fruit shakes on an outdoor patio.




We made our way to the airport, the only mishap being that we discovered that you have to pay a $25 exit fee to leave Cambodia. After paying our fee, we made it to our plane and by 5:30 pm we were off the ground and headed an hour southeast to Vietnam!